Go! Go! Go!...

The EIS team have made their way to the outskirts of Kurchatov, Eastern Kazakhstan, hoping to liberate Albert Einstein. The EIS team consists of Alfie Baldrick, the one man rifle section; Mimi Dubois, maîtresse of skills; Madeline Forsyth, the living shadow; and Sven Hyse, the Norwegian shapeshifter.

Kurchatov, Eastern Kazakhstan, USSR, January 1950

By six in the morning on the cold Saturday the EIS team had made it back to the prefabricated boat shed and hunkered down for the day, leaving Alfie and Billy awake to watch their backs. Arround midday Alfie feels a tremor in the floor of the boat house and Billy swears blind that he can hear the faint rumblings of an explosion in the far distance. They both decide to tell the others when they awake, and both promptly forget. As night sets that evening the team once again prepare to head out into the blizzard like conditions. They plan to split up and search for food, munitions, inspect the aeroplane, and identify the number and position of any long range radio communication equipment.

Sven transforms into a snowy owl and leaps into the sky, buffeted by the strong winds he circles upwards and soars westwards over the wall. Madeline and Mimi transform into shadows and slide over the wall and into the city before splitting up with Madeline heading for the shopping district and Mimi heading towards the air strip.

Through the driving snowstorm Sven is able to spot two main transmitters, one at the air strip and the other to the northern end of Kurchatov in an area that looks militarized. He glides towards the north hoping to get a closer look at the area, he finds a couple of warehouses that look like they might be military stores as well as what appears to be some kind of fuel depot. He flies high above the militarized areas, including the air strip, and is pleased that he does not see any sign of heavy gun emplacements.

Madeline locates a store that sells dried goods and after slipping under the doorway into the closed premises she helps herself to enough to feed the team for a couple of good meals, as well as a skillet to cook it all in. She then slips down the road and slides into a butchers shop and grabs several good cuts of meat for the meal. Meanwhile, Mimi makes it to the air strip and discovers that the aeroplane has it's engines covered against the blizzard and is chocked at the end of the runway. As she slips closer she discovers that the aeroplane is fully fuelled and would be air worthy and ready for take off in a matter of minutes with enough bodies to prepare it. Next Mimi heads for the air strip tower and after sliding up the outside of the tower she can see inside that there are four Russian aviators inside on the control deck, making a mental note she quietly slips away.

The team regroup back at the boat shed and Mimi cooks a warming meal with the ingredients gathered by Madeline while they sketch a rough map out on the floor of the shed and discuss their plan. A key part of which is Mimi borrowing Baldrick's enhanced ability to duplicate himself, which she does and then splits into three Mimi's. Two hours later the team are leaving the boat shed with two Mimi's travelling with Sven and Alfie towards the main gatehouse on the western side of Kurchatov, and Madeline and another Mimi slipping as shadows in the direction of the institute. Alfie, Sven and the Mimi's arrive near the gate and hunker down in the lee of the wall awaiting the signal to go.

Madeline and Mimi gain access into the institute via the roof and head directly for the security room that they had identified on their scouting foray. One by one they slip into the security room and hide beneath a table at the side of the room, Madeline gestures to Mimi which of the two guards she will attack and then uses her enhanced power to create a blob of darkness over the room. The security guards shout in alarm and Madeline target heads towards the light switch, but both the British and the French agent are already moving and have positioned themselves behind their targets, they turn solid simultaneously and plunge their knives into the guards vitals. The guards start to shout. But the shouts are quickly cut off as both women strike again with their bloody knives and the pair of guards drop to the floor bleeding out.

In the silence that follows, Madeline can hear the sound of footsteps in the hall outside the door. A moment later the door opens and both ladies can see a guard holding a Kalashnikov levelled into the room and straining to see into the enhanced darkness. He shouts for his comrades, but when they do not respond he starts shouting loudly:

Alert! Alert!

By the main gates in the western wall a Mimi turns to Sven and Alfie and says:

It's time to go!

Sven, already in the form of a snowy owl, flies over the wall and lands on the inside window ledge of the gatehouse and can see a pair of guards within. He also spots movement in the darkness of the room on the other side of the main gate. He lands on ground and starts to transform. Within the institute security room Madeline transforms back into a shadow as she can hear the sound of running boots in the halls beyond and slides back beneath the bench. Mimi follows her lead and joins her before Madeline removes the darkness. Now able to see the guard steps into the room and can see the dead bodies of his two squad mates, he moves slowly into the room sweeping his gun around the corners of the security room. He is followed into the room by another security guard with a Kalashnikov rifle in his hands. When the pair of guards are both stood within the room Madeline strikes them with a jet of frozen air. Both men drop to the floor unconscious and covered in ice crystals.

Outside the doorway into the gatehouse stand a dwarf clown holding an axe in each hand, it being the quickest humanoid form that Sven can transform into. Sven opens the door quietly and steps within the gatehouse, one of the guards hears the sound of the wind and turns to see an axe spinning end over end and burying itself in the middle of his chest. There is a moment when he looks down at the axe protruding from his sternum before his body realises that it is dead and he drops to the floor. The other guard present freezes in shock, after all, it is not every day that you are attacked by a dwarf clown.

Madeline creates darkness in the security room again and Mimi darts across the floor and turns solid before picking up one of the Kalashnikovs. Madeline slides to the edge of the doorway and can see another guard stepping up towards the security room, she blasts him with another frost jet and the guard drops to the floor covered in ice. A second guard steps up and levels his gun into the room but Mimi pulls the trigger on the AK-47 and sprays him with lead.

Sven charges into the gatehouse and attacks the other gate guard with his tomahawk, and in two swings of the axe the guard is felled. Sven quickly checks the small room at the back of the gatehouse and finds all quiet and empty, so he begins to move quietly in the direction of the other gatehouse.

Madeline turns to Mimi and says:

Quickly, borrow my enhanced defence ability.

And so Mimi does, and then Madeline follows up by saying:

Now borrow my frost attack!

And again, Mimi does what is asked of her, as well as borrowing Madeline's ability to aim the attack. Then once again Mimi follows Madeline's lead as the pair transform back into shadows and slip quietly along the ceiling towards the large open area where they made their entrance. Madeline spots two guards using the cover at the end of the corridor to draw a bead on the security room, but the EIS agents slip silently past them and head in the direction of Albert Einstein.